The gadgets in my life have recently reached a new level of extreme disparity.

At the enormous end of the scale, there’s the new television we put into our newly-finished basement. It’s a 50″ widescreen high-definition DLP set, and even though it integrates fairly nicely with the shelving and cabinetry we had built, it still looks stupidly big to me. When watching a movie, it really gives you a movie-theater experience, simply by taking up so much of your field of view. The surround sound, I think, gets cranked down a bit to compensate.

I look at this thing and I think to myself, “Why?” And the answer is: “Because it was in the budget, and plasma screens are still a bit too expensive for the value received.” So perhaps this is a form of buyer’s remorse, or maybe I’m just being neurotic. Either way, it has a vaguely looming presence that I’m not entirely sure I like.

At the tiny end of the scale, I recently got a 4GB iPod nano. This was the early-registration and speakers’ gift given out at UI10, and I gotta tell you, this thing is God’s gift to daddies. Mine already has a sampling of the best Carolyn pictures taken to date. I can show them off to other people, or just flip through them when I’m on the road and missing my family. It’ll also play those pictures as a slide show, using whatever transition effect I like most. Plus it plays music!

I’m sure it helps that I didn’t pay for it, but honestly, I almost love the little guy. No scratches (yet), and the sound quality is pretty darned good even with the stock earbuds. I’m not one of those audiophile types; if the sound is basically clear, I’m good, so the iPod buds work for me. It’s a bit disappointing, though, that the nano’s dimensions are roughly 1:6:13. I was really hoping for 1:4:9.

Anyway, propping the nano up against the TV feels like a textbook exercise in totally ludicrous contrasts.

There is a product called InvisibleShield. I have it for my nano and it is awesome. A bit difficult to put on, but once it is the product works as advertised. If you don’t want a scratched up nano I recommend it.

No scratches? You must have only had it for a few minutes then … mine got scratched within 2 hours … although by “scratch” I mean grooves so small that you can’t actually see the scratch, just the anomoly in the reflection of direct light … so yeah I’m being picky.

Plus I got a black one – so scratches show up easier.

Thanks for the link James – those protectors look awesome! Will probably cost me $30 in shipping to Australia though … but not real keen to get one of the standard issue covers for my Nano (except maybe one of the Speck products). I mean, why buy an MP3 player that’s the size of a credit card, and then whack it in a cover that bulks it out to the size of an iPod Mini … which you don’t need covers for cuz they’re built like a tank?

Rob: the remote is slightly wider than the nano, about three times as long, and three times as thick. Feel free to do the math, as I’m way too lazy to bother.

Stephen: good eye! Those would be my wife’s, actually; there are also some “Angel” season sets just out of frame. I basically don’t buy TV shows on DVD, even the ones I really liked when they were on. The only exception is visible in the picture: “Black Adder”. (Though one of these years I’m going to get around to buying “The Prisoner”.)